Belgium, Berlin etc.

10/19/10…Kortrijk, Belgium @ The Pits w/ Brutal Knights

Listening to: Nofx (the longest line/the decline), Lemuria

Half white chocolate/half hazelnut spread and vegan was presented to us this fine morning. So damn good. I’m thinking about how people in Germany think that this burrito place in hamburg is a good burrito place. I mean it’s probably the best they have but really a homemade burrito is far better than this. I know we live on the eastcoast and we are far from having the best burritos, but I know what makes a good burrito. Good stretchy fresh tortillas, starchy beans, salt, lime, and cilantro. The rest is whatever, but you need those aforementioned ingredients to be spot on. It reminds me of when Matt Welch took us to some place called “mimis Alaskan tacos” in tampa. Really Alaskan tacos?? It’s too far away from mexico to be good. That being said they were lacking those key ingredients. It was like eting uncle bens rice with baked beans or something.

We showed up to the venue a little late and they were waiting for us to get there. The place was this iny hole in the wall bar but completely packed with raging punks. It was awesome seeing the dudes in Brutal Knights. Apparently this plce has been doing shows for 20+ years. People were diving off of the bar while we were playing. The bartenders were diving/moshing and then going back to serving drinks, it was insane. Also when you walked into the venue there was a urinal right next to where the merch was. No shame, just piss in a crowd. Apparently there was some old guy there, a local crazy, named hermes or something that kept pouring beer on peoples dicks as they were pissing. Brutal Knights was awesome. People went off for them. They played Commando by the Ramones and I dove off the bar.

One of the ladies who helped with the show/bartended took us to her place to crash out afterward. I went back with her to the bar and hung out with the knights. Later that night we stayed up and watched Raging Grannies or Rabid Grannies. I forget the name but it was a pretty entertaing troma flick that was apparently filmed in Kortrijk.

10/19/10…Gottingen, Germany @ Juzi w/ Ruidosa Immundicia

We both woke up relatively early and went back to the pitts for breakfast. Nick or Jeff brought up the fact that the guitar player was in Chokehold and I think he was kind of bummed. Not that Nick or Jeff are into Chokehold but it seemed something of interest to talk about. It was funny. The drummer of BK reminds me of Will Ferrel so much . Oh and for some reason while BK was playing a group of kids started singing that Starland Vocal Band song “afternoon delight”. I wonder if it was an Anchorman reference? I hope it was. Definitely awesome hanging out with those dudes.

When we showed up to Juzi they had an incredible meal waiting for us. Vegan Lasagna, salad, and coconut rice pudding. Damn it was good. The people in Ruidosa Immundicia were really cool. We will be seing them 2 more times on this tour. We played kicker with some folks and as usual we were overly excited/competitive and got our asses handed to us. So much fun. RI killed it. So fast, no stops, raging Crudos style hc punk. We got the kids at the venue to put two big screws in front of the bass drum so it wouldn’t move. Damn good idea. The crowd was kind of tame but the show was still fun. We stayed with some of the kids who helped at the show space. They lived right in the center of the city which was walking distance from the venue. Awesome night.

10/21/10..Leipzig, Germany @ Liwi w/ Deiskoncidos, Ruidosa Immundicia

In the morning I went on a stroll through the center to try and buy a sweatshirt because it was getting really cold outside. No luck though, everything was pretty expensive. Went to the venue for breakfast with RI. This time there was no sweet jam most of everything was salty, which I’m into. There was some sort of mashed up red beans, mashed chickpeas with turmeric and cumin and something else, pretty good. There was also an area that had some free clothing so I grabbed a hoodie and a pretty sick scarf. Leipzig was a lot closer than we expected. We ended up getting there really early. Upon arrival there was a group of sketchy/homeless looking skinheads in front of the venue. For lack of any sort of direction in the city I asked one of them where Zoro was. I heard a few nights before from the brutal knights dudes that zoro has some really good vegan food. I also stepped in a bunch of dog shit right outside of the van. Oh well. The skinhead and his compadre led us to Zoro with his little cart filled with posters and beer. It was only a few blocks away. We found out the Zoro was a squat that had a record store in it and the vegan food was in a restaurant in front of the squat called Zest. We ended up running into the show promoter/record store guy inside Zoro. Nico, Jubert, and I went to Zest while the other walked around to find some Doner. Big mistake for the others because Zest had seriously some of the best vegan food I have ever had. When you walk in you are kind of off put because it looks really fancy and hip. Mood lighting, interesting tables, fashionable host, and menus with tiny print in the corners of the page. I got a sandwhich called the Alamo Melt which was freshly baked thick sliced multi grain bread, cashew cheese, rainbow chard, homemade smoked seitan that was charred out the outside, and the whole thing was slightly grilled in olive oil. On the side was this potato salad with the cashew based cream sauce. The meal was huge and only cost around 7 euro. Absolutely incredible. The one time I didn’t have my camera to take a picture. We also found out that the food being cooked for the bands was going to be made by the head chef of Zest. Score.

Afterward we went to the record store in Zoro which was called “The needle and the damage done” after the neil young song. When I asked the guy at the store if it was named after that neil young song he said “yeah unfortunately” hahaha. I love neil young, suck it. This was really the only time I bought records beside the Gordon Gano’s 7” in the UK. I got the repress of Expression of Pain by Excruciating Terror, The new Masshysteri LP, and an OG pressing of Post Regiments Czarly. Oh and an Extortion 7”. The show started super late and started even later because the PA wasn’t working. The dudes in Deiskoncidos were very cool. RI played first and killed it as usual. DK played next and were awesome. The guitarist warmed up with a smiths song. His guitar tone is crazy. Almost Blatz-esq. We played pretty well but the guitars were kind of quiet and sounded weird. People were pretty still the entire night until we played. Some awkward euro mosh was present for sure. Also sandro from RSR showed up. Always good seeing that man. We ended up sleeping at Zoro. The room we were in was fortunately heated by a wood stove.

10/22/10…Berlin, Germany @ Scharni 38 w/ Short Fuse and Rebarker

Had another breakfast with the RI folks. Headed to Berlin and went straight to the venue. The drive was only 2.5 hours. Martin who was living at Scharni and also helping with the show was there when we arrived and invited us in for tea and coffee. We tried to find the Berlin wall but ended u just finding some rubble near some train tracks. Nico, Jubert, and I went to this sick vegan fast food place called Yo Yo. I got a cheese shnitzel sandwich with fries. Pretty good but not amazing. They had like 30 choices, I will make it back sooner. I later on found out that the pizza was off the chain, oh well. I went out to find some vegan nutella stuff to bring back home and ended finding a “Bio” store. Which is just an organic market. This show also started pretty late. The place filled up pretty fast. It was kind of surprising because there was a fest going on at Kopi that RI and some other bands were playing. There ended up being around 140 paying people. Graham from Hombrinus Dudes was there. He was traveling around and found out about the show. It was great to see him. Short Fuse was really good, 86 mentality/United Mutation hc. The sound was really bad when they played though, all you could really hear was the vocals. When we played there was literally no room to move. I had to push people to the side to get to the stage. People were crammed all the way to the stairs. If you were in the back you could barely see the band. People went crazy when we played. Some guy ripped open this giant bag of confetti while we were playing. Even though I have no idea how it was possible, people were stage diving. Seriously one of the best shows Coke Bust has played. Really awesome. This band from spain hopped on the show and played after us. I think they played for an hour and a half. It was SO LONG. We stayed at Scharni and shared a room with this free spirited Australian traveler lady who told Nico some story of stars and moons or something before we went to sleep. I was so tired I couldn’t really comprehend what was going on.